


Love is Found in the Echo

by SomethingBlue42



Series: Tumblr Fic [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel Dies Temporarily (Supernatural), Castiel and Dean Winchester Have a Profound Bond, Castiel in the Empty (Supernatural), Castiel's True Form (Supernatural), Dean Winchester Deserves to be Happy, Dean Winchester Dies Temporarily, Dean Winchester Prays to Castiel, Dean Winchester to the Rescue, Destiel - Freeform, M/M, Post-Canon, Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Suicide, The Empty (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25234126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomethingBlue42/pseuds/SomethingBlue42
Summary: How terrible it is to love something death can touch.orThe Empty fulfills its promise and Dean Winchester isn't having it.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Tumblr Fic [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828072
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	Love is Found in the Echo

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr fic based on this [fan graphic](https://katteens.tumblr.com/post/141160463929) by katteens
> 
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>   
> 

It had been ten years. Ten _goddamn_ years and it figured that when Dean finally nutted up and told Cas how he felt that it would all come crashing down. They’d been through so much together, so many horrible and seemingly unwinnable situations, but to lose Castiel, lose him _for good_ , over a kiss? To find out he’d made a _deal_ and kissing Dean had triggered repayment, that happiness, honest to god _happiness_ had lit on Dean for the first time in his miserable life and it was snatched away the instant Cas had felt it too. It was fucking tragic. And Dean wasn’t going to stand for it.

“You couldn’t have known.” 

Sam’s voice was like a record scratch, Dean almost forgetting his brother was there. It’d taken them five days to unravel the mystery. Two days of calling Cas both physically and spiritually. A day to work up the courage to ask Sam for help and two more days to put the pieces together, the final realization falling on Dean like the lid of a coffin. He gritted his teeth. He’d broken out of a grave for Cas before. Maybe he could do it again. He looked down at the gun on the table in front of him.

“Dean…” Sam’s voice is a warning, feeling a crackle of adrenaline in the air and he didn’t like it, knew his brother well enough to know this loaded silence didn’t bode well. “What-”

“I’m sorry, Sam.”

It happened too fast for Sam to stop it, for him to even move, to blink. One minute the 1911 was sitting between Dean’s clenched fists, the next his brother’s brains were dripping from the ceiling, head falling back on a loose neck.

Dean’s eyes opened to black. It was darker than darkness, silent as if sound didn’t exist. He felt nothing, smelled nothing, tasted nothing. None of that mattered; he tried to shake himself out of it as much as a sentient, nonexistent thing could.

 _Cas!_ The thought was an exclamation point through whatever wavelength he inhabited. _Castiel! It’s Dean! I came for you. Where are you? I’m not going to leave. I won’t stop until I find you._

He wasn’t sure how time passed there but soon enough it was as if he’d never had a life, a brother, even a body. He was only a message pulsing in the void the message simplifying as even that began to fade. 

_CasIt’sDeanIwon’tstopuntilIfindyouI’mnotgoingtoleaveWhereareyouWhereareyouCasPleaseCasIt’sDeanIwon’tstopuntilIfindyouI’mnotgoingtoleaveWhereareyouWhereareyouCasIt’sDeanIwon’tstopuntilIfindyouI’mnotgoingtoleaveWhereareyouWhereareyouCasPleaseCasIt’sDeanIwon’tstopuntilIfindyouI’mnotgoingtoleaveWhereareyouWhereareyouCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasPleaseCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasCasIloveyou_

Suddenly he was awake, standing in the black. He had legs to stand on. He had eyes to see the nothingness around him. His name was Dean Winchester and he came here for Castiel, angel of the lord, the only soul he’d ever loved besides his brother.

"Sleep.”

Dean blinked, turning in place and found standing at some distance, his father. John Winchester wore a sweatshirt and jeans that Dean only half-remembered but associated with the bumpy leather of a football and the sweet rot of autumn leaves.

“Sleep.”

Dean swallowed, the action both foreign and familiar. “I’m here for Castiel.”

His father smiled, benign in a way Dean thought he knew from a dream, not from memory. “Sleep, son.”

“I’m not your son. Where’s Cas? He’s coming home with me.”

In a blink, John was gone, his mother there now, young and impossibly beautiful, belly swollen and Dean knew his brother was due any day now.

“Sleep.”

Dean lifted his head, eyes looking to the black above him. “I’m looking for Castiel!” His voice didn’t echo but he somehow felt the sound waves moving outward, growing large like ripples in a pond.

“Stop that!” Mary scolded, her brows creasing. “Sleep.”

“Castiel!” Dean spun away, hollering into the fathomless black. “Cas! It’s Dean! I’m here to take you home! I’m sorry it took me so long to… to…”

“Sleep.”

Dean whipped around, the low vibration of the voice shivering up his spine. Castiel stood an arms length away, eyes boring into Dean’s like they’d done from the moment they met.

“Cas!” Dean moved forward, the sensation strange as he tried to close the gap between them, hand grappling for the sleeve of his coat. “Come on, we gotta get outta here.”

Dean’s hand closed on nothing though Cas still stood in front of him. Dean’s eyes narrowed. This wasn’t Cas. It sighed. “There is no Cas. There is no home. Sleep.”

“He’s here.” Dean looked around again, feeling his head swivel on his neck. “Cas! Castiel! Come on! I need you to come home.”

The thing began to laugh, a wretched sound devoid of humor and Dean could feel goosebumps on his skin now. “He can’t hear you. He’s in the deepest hole of the blackest pit. I made sure of it.”

Dean felt his jaw set. “I’ll find him.” He turned, or he thought he did but Not-Cas was still before him, face sour.

“He’s _mine_.” The reverberation seemed to unsettle every cell in Dean’s body. “I see all and you have no power here, Dean Winchester.” The thing smiled with Castiel’s face, turning it hideous and deformed. “You had your chance. Plenty of chances. _Ten whole years_ of chances.” Its head tilted to the side in the curious way Castiel did so often in the beginning, **“How terrible it is to love something death can touch.”**

“You’re not Death. I killed Death. Twice.” Dean flicked up two fingers, a smirk curling on his lips. “You’re nothing. Give me Cas and I’ll let you continue to be nothing.”

“Fool!” The thing stepped forward, the body moving all wrong. “You may have killed God but I am the void that God evolved from. You cannot fathom-”

“Yeah, yeah phenomenal cosmic powers. Itty bitty living space. Save the monologue. I’ve been coming out on top of things like you since I was four years old. And I got news for you, buddy. I got nothing to lose now.”

“Your brother-”

“You wanna bring me my right hand to help me destroy you, go right ahead.”

The thing watched Dean cross his arms over his chest and it frowned. The darkness was beginning to take form now, less empty, more shadow. The thing flickered. “How are you doing this?”

“No idea.” Dean gave a shrug and felt the void shift to accommodate the movement. “Now, Castiel.” Dean brought up a hand, leveling it at his eyes. “Yea big. Trench coat and sensible shoes.”

“You cannot-”

“ _Dean?_ ”

It was small, distant and at first, Dean was sure he’d imagined it until it tickled at his eardrums again.

“ _Dean Winchester! You must leave this place.”_

Dean felt a smile tug at his lips. That was definitely Cas.

“Can it, Feathers!” Dean’s voice boomed, ricocheting through the nothingness. The thing in front of him covered its ears and screamed. “Cas! Follow my voice!”

“ _You cannot stay here. You’ll be lost. Dean!”_

“I gotta tell you, Cas, I was already lost. I can’t find my way back without you.”

The thing before him trembled and exploded. “ _Enough_!”

Dean winced, feeling his knees hit something solid as his body collapsed under the crushing weight of the sound. A hand on his shoulder, lining up with a scar long gone but bone and sinew remembered the touch and soul met grace once again.

“Dean!” 

Dean looked up into fathomless blue eyes, past them to the shadow of wings, three sets, a lion’s head peeking from under one, while the head of a phoenix loomed over the vaguely humanoid face in front of Dean. Dean’s head turned to the thing, now nothing but a shadow, blacker than the black around it, Castiel’s fourth head - a reptilian shape that reminded Dean of a dragon - regarding it with distaste. 

“Dean you have to go home,” The human-ish face frowned, the voice an echo of what Dean knew to be Cas’ and he found his eyes wandering again to the form, human hands larger than him, massive paws for feet, furred chest and scaled sides. The lion’s head nosed closer.

“Not without you.” Dean reached to touch the face, something like skin but velvetier under his palm and the face showed surprise. 

“Let Dean Winchester go,” The dragon head spoke and bared its fangs, serpentine tongue curling back into its mouth. 

Dean could feel the heat brewing from where he stood. One of the human hands wrapped around him gently, cool and dry as a cocoon and he found himself relaxing into it, wrapping his arms around the thumb, cheek pressed to smooth, ridgeless fingertip.

“Take me home, Cas,” he mumbled, eyes closing on familiar blue eyes and a lion and a phoenix peeking over shoulders, the roar of the dragon muffled by the massive hand around him and he sensed no more.

***

Castiel blinked and he was in the bunker. It took him a moment to get his bearings, cramped in his vessel, vision tunneled to two eyes, all of his thoughts and selves occupying one form of sentience. His hearing first registered a high keening, his vessel responding to the distress before his mind fully could. 

His eyes found Sam Winchester sitting on the floor next to a chair, Dean’s lifeless body in his arms. Castiel frowned at the blood, the large hole in the top of Dean’s skull. 

“C-C-Cas?”

Sam’s voice was unbelieving, face tear-stained, and haggard. Something pulsed in his palm and Castiel looked down at it, lifting it to see a brilliant golden light pressing against the skin, crowding the bones.

“Cas… Dean was… he was trying to find you. He… he…” Sam choked, looking down at his brother’s still face, mouth slack. Blood dripped from Dean’s hair onto Sam’s jeans.

Castiel stepped forward, palm curling protectively around the glow while his other hand reached for the body. Sam sniffled as Castiel crouched, palming the back of Dean’s head, smoothing up his hair and closing the wound, rebuilding tissue as synapses reconnected. Grace pushed forward, soothing the burns left by the bullet’s path, rebuilding a tongue, closing the hole under his chin.

Sam watched wide-eyed as Castiel’s blood-stained hand moved to press gently over Dean’s heart and Sam felt the first stutter beat with his arm under his brother’s shoulders. Castiel’s other hand moved to Dean’s mouth, the glow turning bright enough for Sam to squint, and when Castiel opened his palm he had to shut his eyes altogether.

Dean sucked in a great gasp, eyes flying open, back arching against Sam’s hold and he was staring up at blood spatter on the ceiling, fragments of bone and brain dotting the stain. Then Sam was crushing him to his chest, Dean’s protests muffled into the flannel of his shirt.

“Sam, you’re suffocating him.”

Castiel’s voice was all the motivation Dean needed, scrambling to turn over, pull himself into a sitting position. His eyes fell on Castiel’s face, his vessel’s face, blue eyes the same shade, the same warmth behind them and Dean’s arms opened, remembering how he was barely the size of the angel’s thumb and now he was able to knock him back onto his ass and gather his smaller form into a bear hug. Dean felt the rumble of Castiel’s chuckle against his chest and the huff of it against his neck, chapped lips brushing skin.

“Dean, you’re suffocating him.”

“I’m fine,” was Castiel’s muffled reply and Dean gave a watery laugh, not even realizing his eyes had been leaking until he sniffled, pulling back just enough to cup Castiel’s face.

"Hey.”

Castiel smiled warmly. “Hello, Dean.”

Dean felt as if his grin would split his face. “So, bigger than the Chrysler Building. You weren’t lying huh?” Castiel lowered his eyes and Dean admired the lovely flush across his cheeks. His thumbs smudged the heated skin there. 

A throat cleared behind them and Castiel glanced over Dean’s shoulder. “Sammy, could you give us a minute? Maybe get some bleach for the ceiling?”

He heard his brother’s huff of disbelief, his eyes still roving over Castiel’s face, his vessel’s face, remembering the lion’s head, curious, almost innocent and the phoenix, sharp-eyed and wise. He hadn’t got a good look at the dragon but felt like that might have been a good thing given the climate of the confrontation. The sound of Sam’s footsteps faded and Castiel’s eyes found Dean’s again, the guilty look lacerating him. Dean’s hands tightened on his face, almost petting his skin now.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” murmured, soft.

Castiel glanced up and then away quickly. “I didn’t think… I never expected…”

One of Dean’s hands stroked the side of his face and Castiel’s eyes met his again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry it took me so long and I’m sorry that it…” Dean pressed his lips together, finding words horribly insufficient. “I’m just sorry.”

“As am I,” Castiel said, eyes falling to the bloodstained collar of Dean’s t-shirt. 

“Think we can try it again?”

Castiel looked up at him, blue eyes wide but Dean didn’t give him a chance to answer, pressing his lips to Castiel’s, soft and chaste, so different from the impassioned tongue battle that got Castiel ripped back into the Empty. Dean pulled back eyes still closed, licking his lips.

There’d be time for that. They had all the time in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> [Visit me on Tumblr](https://deanwinchesterfirstofhisname.tumblr.com)   
> 


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